Case Study
Corporate travel business CT Connections needed reliable IT infrastructure to support its team across multiple states, including remote workers. By partnering with Comvergence, the business has been able to dramatically improve reliability. Now with a stable platform, CT Connections has been able to shift to cloud-based systems, reducing IT spend and future-proofing the company’s growth.
Objective: Put an end to two years of phone dropout dramas
CT Connections came to Comvergence seeking an answer to a frustrating situation. With different suppliers for its internal network, phone system and internet, it was time consuming to troubleshoot problems. Often each supplier simply passed blame down the line. As a result, CT Connections had spent over two years trying to resolve problems with phone dropouts and unreliable connectivity.
In addition, in the five and a half years since CT Connections moved into its current corporate office, technology dramatically progressed. At the time of moving in, fibre connections were prohibitively expensive so CT Connections had a copper service. But now with the rise in demand on internet networks, the copper network was not keeping pace. The increased availability of fibre and NBN meant that it was clearly time to investigate a network upgrade.
“When something didn’t work, it was time consuming to find out what the issue was. Each supplier was passing on the blame, saying ‘Nothing wrong here!’ Trying to find the root cause was difficult.” Martin Phillips, Systems Accountant, CT Connections
Solution: Seeing the big picture
After a referral from another travel agency,
CT Connections approached Comvergence to see how they could help. It was
refreshing for CT Connections how Comvergence was able to take a holistic
approach to the business’ IT needs.
“Comvergence were able to see the bigger picture. We outlined our business
concerns, our story and what our issues were. Comvergence were able to give us
an answer and make the necessary tweaks to provide us with the reliable
infrastructure our business needed,” said Phillips.
Comvergence recommended a shift to a fibre network for CT Connections and was able to provide significantly more competitive pricing than the existing Optus supplier relationship. CT Connections felt confident in Comvergence, their knowledge, and the support they could provide including local help desk and 24/7 monitoring.
Reliable service with personalised support
Comvergence has supplied CT Connections with a 100Mbps fibre connection that has 99.95% reliability. The new network, in addition to a few firewall tweaks, has seen a significant improvement in their VoIP reliability. The phone connection quality has been exceptional and has put an end to more than two years of phone dropout issues with CT Connections’ previous suppliers.
But more than the infrastructure, Comvergence has given CT Connections proactive support and monitoring. For example, recently Comvergence identified an absence of activity on the CT Connections network on a Sunday morning. A power outage had impacted the fibre network and phone calls were getting an engaged signal. This was an issue for a travel company who needed to be contactable 24/7.
Comvergence got in touch with CT Connections, who were unaware of the situation at the time and hadn’t yet realised there was an issue with phone calls not being forwarded to the after hours remote teams. Thanks to Comvergence’s proactivity, CT Connections was able to act fast and ensure the impact to the business was limited.
Other benefits CT Connections has experienced include:
- Ease of additional network connections: CT Connections provides address details to Comvergence who confirm fibre availability, then seamlessly manage the installation
- Consistent team: CT Connections has only ever dealt with a handful of people within Comvergence, who all know and understand the business intimately. This delivers an exceptional level of service.
“Our business doesn’t run without internet or phones. Being able to contact someone when we have an issue is a number one priority for us, and knowing we are on first name terms with the Comvergence team makes us feel like we are a priority for their business too.” Martin Phillips, Systems Accountant, CT Connections
Taking off to the cloud
Now that CT Connections has a reliable fibre network in its five Australian offices, the business has been able to embark on a migration of its legacy IT Infrastructure to the cloud. Seven on-premise servers have been replaced by two servers in Microsoft Azure, future-proofing the company’s growth strategy whilst also providing compliance with industry standards (such as ISO 27001).
In addition, CT Connections team members are now able to work more effectively from remote locations. The stability of the network and the ability to access from any location has increased team morale and productivity.
Find a partner you can rely on
Ultimately, any business needs its underlying infrastructure to be reliable and stable. Finding a reliable and trustworthy partner who is proactive and responsive has given CT Connections the surety it needs to get on with business, hassle-free.
“For me, the best news story is when I don’t hear from anyone about IT issues. That’s how I know it’s going well – when nobody notices it. Investing in the underlying infrastructure and hardware platforms is essential, the tiny cost savings of not doing so isn’t worth it.” Martin Phillips, Systems Accountant, CT Connections
